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Saturday, May 14, 2016

Lately, I seem to be good at dipping into controversy. I'm putting this on the Other Stuff blog because it's a group of topics that are well covered in the Bible as to what should and shouldn't be done and what is or isn't sin. Although all of that has been as much misinterpreted ninety ways from tomorrow as it has been properly understood. And there are things that never really get discussed among the flash and boom of battle lines formed against each others' viewpoints. Toss in religion vs no religion and conversation halts. I'd like to see that change. So, we'll look at this from a different angle or two.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

It's been awhile since we did a Gadget Goodies column. With good reason. We've joined the crew at Techaeris. So, that's where our straight tech writing has gone. And we've been able to cover a wider range of topics, from gene modification, to tech security, to a few personal reviews. From now on, that's where you'll find my straight tech/science stuff. There's a link in the sidebar to a listing of my Techaeris articles and columns. But, along with a variety of miscellaneous non-tech stuff, we're keeping some tech stuff here on Bill's Other Stuff.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

As we've talked about various aspects of downsizing, we've looked at various reasons why downsizing is a good idea. Reiterating those might be a good way to start, then move on to some final thoughts.

Our illustration is a pile of recycled cellphones. If we think of our own use of electronics, it might surprise us to discover how much our electronics usage compares to that. And we're not talking about what we throw out. In some ways, modern marketing has turned first world countries into nations of hoarders. The result is a combination spare units, broken devices, extra batteries, a few parts, maybe some cases we can no longer use, etc. You get the picture.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

OK. Monday's post on the Bill's Musings blog didn't end up being as promised. We barely got started, thanks to a very interesting topic. When we left off, last time, we mentioned a spiritual side to handling our tech lives. Indeed, life itself. The spiritual side, no matter what we take it to be or how we allow it into our lives, will always have an effect.

For those who don't read our other blog, I'm an evangelical Christian. Monday, we discussed Ephesians 5:1 and, in particular, the phrase "followers of God" as a continuation of a thought started in "Gadget Goodies 33", here.. If you missed last Monday's post and want to read it, it's here: Followers of God. It's worth reading. And for further background there's our latest LifeNote, here: Full or Hungry?. But what we share today goes beyond any particular philosophical, religious, or spiritual view. Take a look.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

I've been having fun, in a lot of directions. As a result, I never noticed that 8 months have gone by since our last Gadget Goodies post. At that point, I was going to sell the Nexus 7 and stick with my Z Ultra. I've done that. I also got into the whole smart watch thing, decided the Pebble didn't cut it, and discovered that AndroidWear was too distracting at all the wrong times. I had returned the Pebble and was going to sell the LG watch. That hasn't happened, yet.

Things have gotten interesting since then. And that's where this becomes a combination of tech and the practical. We'll explain the illustration shortly.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

As I said, last time, switching to low tech has had its surprises. Some good, some not so good. The basic premise of the plan is valid. But there have been some quirks in the implementation.

That's a picture of the Nexus 7, to the right. Besides the size and quality, one of the reasons I chose it instead of something else was the fact that it was already being upgraded to Android 5.0. When it arrived, I quickly got it out of the box and plugged it in to charge. Once it had spent some time charging, I turned it on. That's where I got my first surprise -- actually several surprises. Mostly good.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

It's Christmas time, when we all seem to look forward to a boatload of tech goodies under the tree. If you've been following our tech posts, you know how much I love tech. After all, I've done a variety of smartphones, from the old Windows Mobile, through several Blackberry models, to the Note 2 and the Sony Z Ultra. My tablets have been a Blackberry Playbook, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and a Nexus 7 2013. And there's, at the moment, an LG G Watch R in the mix. Along with that, I've talked about Linux and the beta of the next version of Windows.

With all that, our title and that picture to the left don't seem to fit, do they? But they really do both fit in with my latest tech direction. It's not really very different than it has been, And, yes, I'll explain that one.